Where have I been?

Where have I been?

I’ve been all over the place and barely in my own garden, although I have spent a lot of time in pretty amazing gardens in some incredible journeys.   I’ve travelled across New Zealand a few times, and internationally I spent some time in Australia, Norfolk Island and Tahiti but now I’m pleased to be home with an empty calendar for the foreseeable future.  

I’ve visited some really diverse gardens including 8 botanic gardens, countless private gardens, edible gardens, arboretums, tropical gardens, big gardens, small gardens and each one was a source of inspiration and admiration.  Some stirred the inkling of ideas I could apply to my own garden and others it was just a case of standing back in awe of what others have been able to achieve.   It was a pleasure and a privilege to be able to visit so many wonderful gardens.

But there was a cost.  My garden didn’t receive the kind of attention it needed.  They say the best fertiliser is the gardeners shadow and I was barely there.   In between travel engagements I was able to tackle weeds, so it was never really overgrown and harvest crops that had been set in motion months earlier, but it was effectively left to its own devices.   I knew this extended absence was coming so I’d managed to implement a few low maintenance strategies so the garden would cope without completely being overwhelmed with the neglect.  

While being physically absent from the garden, it was never far from my mind and a spent a lot of time thinking about it.  Life has changed for us over the years and the expression ‘if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got’ rung in my ears.  The garden needs a bit of a shake up.     Aside from attempting to down size, while still providing us with all our vegetable needs in the wide range of crops that have not only the ordinary covered but allows us to eat like kings with the excitingly unusual, there has been the increasingly concerning pest loading that has almost – almost but not quite, stopped me growing tomatoes altogether!

So, in the time away from the garden, I thought deeply about the garden and put pen to paper in my trusty notebook and made some plans.   I poured over the photos from the previous season, and from the recent years gone by and acknowledged what wasn’t working so well, what was doing ok and celebrated the successes.  Then I created strategies and lists, in the hopes the garden will thrive in the face of pests, be resilient to any future travel possibilities and continue to feed us in these challenging economic times. 

As the tropical sun-kissed tan fades from my skin and I embrace an encroaching winter, I’ve begun the first steps to the new and improved garden season with the inevitable clearing of the weeds.  Once the soil is cleared, I will have a blank canvas to release my vision for the garden and hope for the best.

Gardening is a journey where the learning is never completed and the garden will always prompt and guide you to do better, and sometimes you need to step away so you can see the wood for the trees.  I’m excited for what the garden will be next, and I hope I’m able to do it justice.

Come again soon – it feels good to get the dirt back under my nails!

Sarah the Gardener  : o)

NB:  To find out more about the places I visited – go to my Sarah the Gardener Facebook or Instagram page and scroll back in time for more detailed posts.